COVID cases rise, deaths stagnate in county
SANTA CRUZ >> No new coronavirus-related deaths have been reported in Santa Cruz County since Friday, quite possibly a record for the most amount of days in a row that the figure has stayed the same since the Thanksgiving Day surge hit.
But it’s too early to find a trend around the slowed reporting, county spokesman Jason Hoppin said.
“We are still reviewing several (death certificates),” he said in an email Wednesday. “(It’s) too early to say.”
While confirmed deaths may be fewer in the last week or so, cases continue to rise steadily. Since Tuesday, 186 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the county.
In terms of established trends, the virus continues to have an
inequitable impact on the county’s Hispanic population, as its cases make up 54% of all cases in the county. Approximately 60% of the county’s cases were traced to south county residents, while that area makes up just 29% of the county’s total population. Watsonville alone, which according to its city website houses primarily Hispanic individuals, accounts for 53% of the county’s cases though it makes up just 19% of the total county population.
In an effort to focus on equitably tackling the coronavirus response, a metric called the health equity quartile positivity rate will determine how the county reopens once it moves out of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s regional stay-at-home order and back into the colored tier system. For counties to enter the red tier, the quartile positivity rate must be at or less than 8%. For counties to enter the orange tier, the quartile positivity rate must be at or less than 5.2%. For counties entering the yellow tier, the quartile positivity rate must be at or less than 2.1%. Right now, the county’s quartile positivity rate, due to the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus on its south county community, is 21.2%.
It appears the Bay Area region will continue to stay under the order for another week, state metrics show. The projections were below the threshold Tuesday, as the state reported one of its five regions had just 7.4% ICU capacity; any region wishing to exit the order must have a projected ICU capacity of at least 15% or higher.